Chapter 94: Ghostly Shadow (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 94: Ghostly Shadow (4)
The Twelve Sons of the Heavenly Demon.
Having clawed their way up from the very bottom of life, they were constantly forced to prove their worth for one simple reason: they were the children of the Heavenly Demon.
"Baek Joong-hyuk. From this moment on, you will live as a Dark Ghost for one year."
The assassination unit of the Demonic Cult.
It was a stage set specifically to test Baek Joong-hyuk.
Just like him, his brothers were assigned their own roles. As a member of the Dark Ghosts, Baek Joong-hyuk received assassination orders. His first target was not particularly difficult: hunt down and kill a low-ranking Demonic Human who had caused trouble within the Demonic Cult and fled. He successfully eliminated the target a mere three days after receiving the mission.
His second mission.
The target was far more difficult than the first—an infamous master of the Evil Faction. Baek Joong-hyuk immediately sought him out and challenged him to a duel.
The fight was fierce.
The Evil Faction master pressed Baek Joong-hyuk relentlessly, refusing to give an inch, but a single mistake cost him his head. It was an even faster resolution than his first mission. Upon Baek Joong-hyuk's return to the Demonic Cult, whispers began to spread that he possessed a natural talent for being a Dark Ghost.
However,
The third mission was different.
The target was a master of the Righteous Faction—someone against whom he stood absolutely no chance in a head-on clash.
Unlike his encounter with the Evil Faction master, he could not simply walk up and issue a challenge. Ordered to produce results within a week, Baek Joong-hyuk chose a different approach. It was then that he began to utilize the darkness. He stalked the Righteous Faction master, memorizing his daily routine, and waited for the moment he was most off-guard to strike. The plan was flawless. Never imagining an assassin would be hiding at the bottom of the outhouse, the master met a pathetic end, assassinated in the middle of relieving himself.
As the missions continued,
Baek Joong-hyuk focused entirely on the cold, hard reality of survival.
In later years, once he came to be known as the Best Under Heaven, he preferred head-on confrontations. But when he lacked power, he knew how to keep his head down and make the absolute most of his abilities. It was a matter entirely separate from pride. If Baek Joong-hyuk had been the type of fool to babble about pride while at the very bottom of life, he would have died in that underground cave without ever accomplishing a single thing.
Time passed.
Baek Joong-hyuk killed many people.
In the process, he mastered various assassination techniques, stopping at absolutely nothing to complete his missions.
And one year later,
people spoke of him:
The Dark Ghost of the Demonic Cult, who had slain thirty-eight masters.
They said that the moment you saw his ghostly shadow, death was inescapable.
That was
a secret of Roman Dmitry's past—one that the people of his current life could never know.
* * *
For this operation,
when Roman first announced his intention to face the Hector Kingdom alone, his subordinates unanimously opposed the idea.
"Absolutely not. It is not that I doubt your abilities, my Lord. I am certain you could achieve significant results on your own, but the enemy's numbers are simply too great. The Hector Kingdom has prepared thoroughly for this invasion. If you were to be injured while facing them, we would have no choice but to fear the worst."
It was Chris.
Unlike Kevin, who remained perfectly calm, Chris tried to dissuade Roman, his voice laced with agitation.
The others felt the same.
McBurney, who had recently joined their ranks, agreed with Chris.
"It is an impossible operation. The southern mountains are extremely rugged. At first glance, it might seem like we can use the terrain to face a large force with few numbers, but the restricted environment actually makes it difficult to utilize mobility. Furthermore, there are very few mountain paths that allow human passage, making it incredibly easy for the enemy to pursue us. Please reconsider."
Their opposition was fierce.
They simply could not accept Roman's plan.
In truth, trying to face the Hector Kingdom with a force of barely two hundred men made no logical sense to begin with.
However,
Roman did not offer a long-winded explanation to persuade them.
His plan defied common sense.
What was needed now was not logical persuasion, but blind faith to follow his plan to the letter.
"If you trust me, follow the plan."
That was all.
At those brief words,
Chris shut his mouth.
While newcomers like McBurney still looked as though they could not accept it, those who had followed Roman since his days in the Dmitry Family were different. What kind of man was Roman Dmitry? He had always taken actions that defied common sense. From his clash with Blood Fang to the annihilation of the Barco Family, countless aspects of his journey had shattered conventional logic.
And now,
Roman stood alone before the enemy.
Watching the torches rushing toward him from all directions, Roman surrendered himself to the pitch-black darkness.
* * *
Whoosh!
Flames flared up.
The soldiers of Hector waved their torches wildly, trying to locate Roman, but he was nowhere to be seen.
The martial arts of the Dark King begin with becoming one with the darkness.
During his days as a Dark Ghost, Baek Joong-hyuk had encountered the martial arts of the Dark King within the Demonic Cult's treasure vault.
The Dark King was a figure who had left a massive mark on the history of Murim.
Starting out as a mere petty thief, he learned how to utilize the darkness and grew into a legendary figure known as the Great Thief. From then on, his thefts reached an entirely different level. He did not stop at merely picking the pockets of wealthy tycoons; he targeted the prominent sects of Murim. He targeted the Five Great Clans of the Righteous Faction, such as the Namgung Clan and the Zhuge Clan, as well as the sects of the Evil Faction. He even dared to set foot in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, the stronghold of the Demonic Cult.
If he had stopped there,
the Dark King would have remained a legend.
But, intoxicated by his own abilities, he coveted the Heavenly Demon's treasure vault, and as a result, met a gruesome end.
Rustle.
The martial arts of the Dark King.
He assimilated with the darkness.
It reached a point where he was difficult to discern with the naked eye even if he stood directly in front of someone, and not a single sound escaped his feet, even when stepping on dry, fallen leaves. It was perfect stealth. The moment an area illuminated by torches fell back into shadow, Roman would appear, gliding seamlessly through the darkness.
And then—
Slash!
"…Keh?!"
He launched his surprise attack.
Unable to react to the sword thrusting out from the shadows, the Hector soldier coughed up blood, his eyes wide with shock.
"What the—"
"Enemy! The enemy has appeared!"
Screeech!
A shrill whistle pierced the night.
Even though they had realized the enemy's presence and tightened their formation, a split second of carelessness immediately resulted in a comrade's death. The Hector soldiers moved frantically. They tried to form a defensive perimeter around the fallen soldier, but Roman had already slipped away the moment the whistle blew.
"Aaargh!"
"Ugh!"
Screams echoed from all directions.
If they swarmed the right, he struck from the left.
If they swarmed the left, he struck from the right.
They thought they were reacting quickly, but he appeared on the opposite side as if mocking them.
His movements were elusive, truly ghostlike.
The Hector soldiers scanned their surroundings with venomous, panicked eyes.
They tried to close ranks to protect one another, but that only ended up creating more openings for Roman.
Slowly. I will take them down one by one.
The Hector Kingdom.
They had set foot on a mountain shrouded in pitch-black darkness.
In their judgment, they probably thought the night wouldn't be a major issue. However, the pathetic limitations of humans—who had no choice but to rely on artificial light—prevented them from reacting even when Roman moved right before their eyes. The martial arts of the Dark King did not make one's body literally invisible. It was merely a technique that used the surrounding Qi to assimilate with the shadows. But his experience living as a Dark Ghost had taught him exactly how to utilize such an ability to its absolute limits.
The knights of Hector struggled desperately.
Those capable of using Aura took the lead, but Roman relentlessly targeted their blind spots.
He did not rush.
The moment anyone strayed even slightly from the formation,
Roman delivered death without fail.
Since he used Mana to muffle the sound, the enemies did not even realize their comrades were dying right beside them.
The Hector Kingdom did not know.
They did not know that the entity they were facing—
the enemy stalking them through the darkness—was only a single person.
My plan this time is not to annihilate the enemy. It is to kill as many as possible so they can no longer ignore my existence. I will make them regret setting foot on this mountain after nightfall.
The night was long.
And soon,
they would surely be praying for the sun to rise with all their hearts.
* * *
Thompson, a knight of Hector, swallowed hard.
His hands and legs trembled violently at the chaos unfolding around him.
What on earth is happening?
The situation before his eyes
made absolutely no sense.
An enemy had clearly appeared, but no matter how much he looked around, he couldn't catch even a glimpse of them.
"Over there!"
"Move, quickly!"
The frantic shouts of the soldiers echoed.
Their formation was already meaningless.
Hearing the sounds of death echoing from all directions, the Hector soldiers rushed blindly toward the noise every time it rang out. The commanders could not control the soldiers' panic. As comrades who had been guarding their flanks just moments ago kept turning up dead, anger and fear intertwined, completely blinding their judgment.
Even so—
Thud!
"Argh."
The casualties continued to mount.
Countless soldiers searched the dark with bloodshot eyes, but the moment they averted their gaze even slightly, the shadow of death claimed them without fail. It was a terror truly beyond words. Unable to estimate how many enemies were lurking in the pitch-black space, Thompson gripped his sword, his face pale and tense.
Cold sweat poured down his face.
He absolutely refused to leave the formation.
Moving slowly alongside the other soldiers, he prioritized his own safety far above finding the enemy.
From the rear of the formation,
Thompson could see it happening.
He watched the soldiers moving ahead of him vanish, one by one.
Flicker.
A torch went out.
He didn't actually see the soldier die; he merely deduced the death from the extinguishing of the light.
As expected,
a soldier right next to the fallen man blew his whistle frantically, and the torches swayed as everyone rushed toward that direction.
Then—
Flicker.
Another light on the opposite side vanished.
Standing a step back,
the rapidly disappearing lights caught his eye.
Only then did he truly realize.
Something was terribly wrong.
They had believed the Hector Kingdom held the absolute advantage, but in this situation, they couldn't be considered to have any advantage at all.
It was then.
"Captain!"
"The 1st Company Commander is dead!"
The death of the 1st Company Commander.
A fire had been lit under Thompson's feet.
Despite there being quite a few soldiers near the 1st Company Commander, the commander had been found dead right in their midst. It felt as though human senses were being completely denied. Even though they were keeping their eyes wide open and scanning their surroundings, the moment they blinked, another impossible tragedy occurred.
This is impossible.
He ran frantically.
Instead of tending to the commander's corpse, he grabbed the communication device the commander had been carrying and hurriedly activated it.
And then—
"Commander! A ghost has appeared here! Please help us! If we stay like this, we're all going to die!"
It was
a voice that threw the people on the other end of the communication line into utter bewilderment.
No, it was a scream.